Early Hand Expressing
I had always planned to harvest colostrum antenatally, as I knew there were many benefits learning how to do it before the baby is born, helping to release oxytocin and the added bonus that if I got any colostrum I could freeze this! There is so much conflicting advice out there (even as a midwife!) so I had planned to start at 36-37 weeks. However, after discovering at a routine scan at 34 weeks that my baby was measuring a little bit smaller, Shaheda reassured me there was no evidence that expressing small amounts from 34 weeks would induce labour.
With her own personal experience also reassuring me further, she encouraged me to start just once or twice a day for a few minutes so I did and much to my surprise I was able to collect some! This made me feel so reassured that even if the next scans confirmed my baby was still small I had a little collection of colostrum to give him or her at birth!
Over the next few weeks I became more confident with my technique and, as I felt no tightenings, increased the length of time I was expressing.
By 37 weeks it was clear that my baby was not growing at the rate expected so an induction of labour before 40 weeks was recommended. I then started expressing more in the hopes it might get things going and also to increase my stock! Unfortunately, even with all the hand expressing I did, I didn’t manage to get myself in to labour!
After 5 weeks of hand expressing, I gave birth to my baby boy, Robin, at 39 weeks . He refused to latch the first 2 days so found having all the EBM a real comfort in what would otherwise have been extremely stressful circumstances!
Shaheda has been a constant source of advice, encouragement and support and really gave me the confidence to start expressing. Looking at my little collection makes me feel so proud - I know I am lucky to have been able to get so much but also it has really boosted my confidence that if the baby will not latch at birth I know how to express so won’t be trying to learn how to do it whilst worrying about producing colostrum for the baby!
